Library storytimes and programming for babies, toddlers, school-aged children and tweens!

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Fire Engines & Fire Fighters Storytime

National Fire Prevention week is Oct. 5-11th this year, so it fit right into my fall storytime session and I did a storytime all about fire trucks and fire engines. This was a BIG hit with my younger kids, and I had told them all the previous week that they could bring in fire truck toys to show-and-tell if they liked. Many of them remembered and it added lots of excitement to the theme! I think next year I *might* try to incorporate a real fire fighter into storytime, as it turns out that the father of one of my little girls in storytime is a fire fighter! That would be a lot of fun.

There are many great fire engine/fighter books to choose from, but this week I shared:

I'm Brave is a brand new book from Kate and Jim McMullan, and while I am a big fan of their previous picture books and have used them in storytime, admittedly I'm Brave did not work so well as a read-aloud. It's too wordy, in my opinion, with lots of tools mentioned and I ended up skipping over large chunks of the words because kids weren't paying attention and I was losing the group's interest. It is a cute book, but not a good choice for storytime. Lesson learned! Dot the Fire Dog, on the other hand, was a wonderful story and the kids loved that she saved the kitten in the end.

Song:The Wheels
on the Fire TruckThe wheels on the fire truck go round and round, round and round, round and
round.
The wheels on the fire truck go round and round, all the way to the fire.
The siren on the fire truck goes wheeoo, wheeoo, wheeoo.
The siren on the fire truck goes wheeoo, all the way to the fire.
The Dalmatian on the fire truck goes woof, woof, woof; woof, woof, woof; woof,
woof, woof.
The Dalmatian on the fire truck goes woof, woof, woof, all the way to the fire.
The ladder on the truck goes up and up; up and up; up and up,
The ladder on the truck goes up and up, all the way to the fire.
The hose on the truck goes spray, spray, spray; spray, spray, spray; spray,
spray, spray.
The hose on the truck goes spray, spray, spray putting out the fire.
As the kids, what else could we sing about?

Fingerplay: 5 Brave Firefighters5 brave firefighters waiting by the pole. Ring,
ring, ring goes the bell(ring a bell) And down one goes!
4 brave firefighters waiting by the pole.
Ring, ring, ring goes the bell, and down goes one!
3 brave firefighters waiting by the pole.
Ring, ring, ring goes the bell, and down goes one!
2 brave firefighters waiting by the pole.
Ring, ring, ring goes the bell, and down goes one!
1 brave firefighter waiting by the pole.
Ring, ring, ring goes the bell, and down goes one!
No brave firefighters waiting by the pole. The fire is out and that is all!

SUNG TO: I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT
I'm a little firefighter on the go
Here is my helmet, here is my hose
When I see a fire hear me shout
Turn on the water and put the fire out!

The felt board activity that I used this week was a HUGE hit. The colors of the trucks are a bit muted in my picture, but the children really loved participating in this activity. I had somewhat low attendance this week, so for all of my storytimes, every child got at least 2 fire trucks of different colors, so they could come up to the board twice.

Fire! Fire! Emergency! Someone is in
trouble.
Calling all *blue firetrucks. Come on the double!(repeat until all the children have added their firetruck to the
board)Spray the water,now the fire is out!
"Everyone is safe!" We all shout.

We also did actions to the song Drive the Firetruck from the Songs for Wiggleworms CD, which was a lot of fun.

For the craft this week, I found this great jointed puppet craft, and it was really enjoyed by the kids!